Will Tupper Released An Unpublished Interview With Peter Laird
 

In his first time writing for GoGreenMachine, Will Tupper shares a previously unpublished interview with Peter Laird. We hope you enjoy it :-)

http://gogreenmachine.wordpress.com/...y-will-tupper/

It was interesting to hear Peter talk about the downside to creating Turtles. I think there's some fan resentment over his seeming ambivalence towards the property sometimes. But when you see his responses to questions like that, you realize he's just an ordinary guy who happened to create a media giant. That's rough. He's still got a lot of love for his creation, though.

I think the information about Will was almost the more interesting piece. A recent English major who fell into writing comics via fan letters and freelance work? How hopeful (not that I'll hold my breath).

Being the creator of such a successful franchise is exhausting, it likely happens to just about any creator out there of something really popular.

I still have great respect for Peter Laird for sticking with TMNT for 25 years, that's half his life, and it's pretty amazing despite all the criticism he seems to get from fans these days.

I just wish Kevin Eastman would get back into Turtles somehow, but I doubt it'll happen at this point.

At least there's hope for us writing majors.. ;) Very good read on Both parts.

Word. Although I'm making sure to graduate with a teaching degree as well. Writing is a good way to starve if it's your only credential.

Hey Guys,

This week’s all but driven me out of my mind. Which is why it’s taken me so long to answer your incredibly kind replies. Thank you, all.

Stephan: 'Specially you, dude. This piece would have rotted forever in an old college folder were it not for you. You rock.

Cipher: Right on w / your assesment of Mr. Laird's predicament. I couldn't agree more. Thank you, too, for the kind words about my lede to the piece. I'd be honored if you found my small successes in the comic book business hopeful. Although, no. You probably shouldn't hold your breath (passing out = bad :D).

Cybercubed: I second everything you said.

Machias Banshee: Writing majors run the world, man! :D

Cipher (again... and everyone else, I guess): Here's a bit I couldn't work into the lede of the piece (although I tried, it just didn't sound right):

I mentioned a couple times the Chicago magazine, Punk Planet, that I though would publish the interview. I'd written for them before, quite a bit, and I thought an interview with Mr. Laird would be a "direct hit," in terms of the magazine's market, as well as it's sensibilities.

For various reasons (including limited page space), it just didn't make it. But that's not the point. Not here, at least.

The point is that, when I crafted my first pitch letter for Mirage / Murph (which I radically rewrote no less than 10 times - I wanted this gig bad) I knew it was a good idea to list my best and brightest previous writing credentials. This included my work with Punk Planet. While a small magazine, it was well-respected, and had won a ton of awards for it's reporting.

But that's not the point, either. The point, at least here, is this:

When Murph read my query, he saw that I'd written for Punk Planet. And that was cool. Because he "knew" my name, as well as my work, from somewhere other than my verbose (and rewritten, and copyedited, and then rewritten again) letters to the Turtle comics. He'd read Punk Planet for a bunch of years. Why?

Because his wife used to write for it. She was on the review staff of the magazine. As it turns out, it IS a small world after all :D.

I say all that just to say this: please, DON'T get discouraged if the best gigs you can get so far are small press / independent... even just running your own blog, or whatever. The more you get your work out there, the better. The more likely it is someone might read it who can help make one of your biggest dreams come true.

Cool? And, Cipher (and everyone else, as well): if you're planning on going into education (Bless You), as well as writing / doing creative work, I'd highly recommend you read Stephen King's memoir, On Writing, if you haven't already.

King worked as a high school teacher for a few years before his career really took off, and what he has to say about his life, and how it relates to writing during that time is absolutely priceless.